THE GENTLE ART OF BROWSING: Things had slowed down a bit by the time these browsers arrived at the Friends of the Princeton Public Librarys Annual Book Sale last Saturday. At the Friday preview, the aisles were crowded and busy, but civilized. With the income topping last years record breaker by $3,000, 2009 looks to be the most profitable year in book sale history, particularly now that the daily sale has expanded into the former library store, where business has been booming.

Dilshanie Perera

Ellen Gilbert

Recent discussions about severe flooding were the basis of three Township Committee actions at its Monday evening meeting, among them the tabling of an ordinance that would require homeowners to disclose the possibility of flooding to potential renters.

Ellen Gilbert

Susan Neiman, author of Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-up Idealists (Harcourt 2008), roundly rejects the notion that the more you know about life, the less you should expect of it. Speaking at a Princeton Public Library talk sponsored by the Sentience Foundation, she observed that this preparation to expect and demand very little in life is not maturity. Its resignation.

Dilshanie Perera

Showcasing artwork from both the Russian and American sides of the Bering Strait, the new exhibition at the Princeton University Art Museum, Gifts From the Ancestors: Ancient Ivories of Bering Strait, offers a unique view of the ancient art and culture of Native populations from that region.

Book Review

Stuart Mitchner

Usually when I’m asked why I write … I reply, “To avoid a day job.” But the truth is that there are people in real life I want to honor. It’s easy to write about despair. It’s tough to present optimism realistically and appealingly. I think it’s a worthwhile goal to help people find genuine pleasure without feeling like fools.

Paul Rudnick, quoted in Time, May 3, 1993

The subtitle of Paul Rudnick’s new book, I Shudder: And Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey (Harper $23.99) could as easily have ended with Life, Death, and Manhattan. If, like me, you feel that New York City is more closely and profoundly attached to New Jersey than to New York state, the combination works either way. However you style it, the New Jersey-born-and-raised author was clearly destined to live and write in the Big Apple. Quirks of behavior involving his diet and his inability to drive a car would alone be enough to qualify him for residence there. Some of the funniest moments in the book concern young Paul’s bizarre eating habits and failed driving lessons with his long-suffering father. And if you want a close-up look at one of the “mainstays” of his diet, just check out “the adorable Peeps” on the cover of I Shudder: those “acid yellow baby chicks made of marshmallow, with sooty black eyes … available in families of six or eight, attached to their siblings in a Siamese-twin fashion.”

Music/Theater

Nancy Plum

Princeton Symphony Orchestra has a new Music Director for its 30th anniversary year, but with incoming conductor Rossen Milanov’s schedule booked ahead, the Symphony has invited guest conductors for its first two concerts. Sunday afternoon’s program in Richardson Auditorium brought Boston conductor Benjamin Zander to Princeton for a lecture and performance which foreshadows Milanov’s concept of the “total concert experience.” Mr. Zander has been conductor of the Boston Philharmonic for more than thirty years, has led the New England Conservatory Youth Philharmonic Orchestra for thirty-eight years, and is known for entertaining and informative lectures on music. Mr. Zander preceded Princeton Symphony’s presentation of Camille Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in g minor and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with a lecture the day before. From all accounts, the lecture gave audience members unique insight into these pieces, each of which challenged Princeton Symphony to play with precision and clarity.

All in a Days Work

Ellen Gilbert

Princeton University Special Collections assistant Valerie Addonizio received her M.L.I.S. in archival science from the Rutgers School of Communication, Information, and Library Science. She also has an M.A. in art history from Rutgers. She came to Princeton just this year; her first project was processing the papers, artwork, and other documentation by and related to the artist George Segal, donated to the library by Segals wife and the George and Helen Segal Foundation.